Living in the Shadow of Death: Gangs, Violence and Social Order in Urban Nicaragua, 1996鈥�2002
Abstract
This article explores the dynamics of the youth gang (pandilla) phenomenon in contemporary urban Nicaragua, drawing on longitudinal ethnographic research conducted with a Managua pandilla in 1996鈥�97 and in 2002. Pandillas and their violent practices are conceived as constituting a form of local social structuration in the face of broader conditions of high crime, insecurity, and socio-political breakdown. This form of 鈥榮treet-level politics鈥� changed significantly between 1997 and 2002, however, evolving from a form of collective social violence to a more individually and economically motivated type of brutality. This transformation is related to wider structural processes, which are described as coming together and precipitating a form of 鈥榮ocial death鈥� in contemporary Nicaragua.
Citation
Journal of Latin American Studies (2006) 38 (2) 267-292 [doi: doi: 10.1017/S0022216X0600071X]